Two sets of copies of notebooks kept by Nicholas Kusmit to record his Custom Shop work for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company Custom Shop, and later as part of the Olin Corporation. The white notebooks are simply photocopies of the various notebooks he kept, while the Winchesters That I Have Engraved volumes are prints from digital scans, which are all on CD-Rom at the beginning of the series.

Nick’s format for his diaries is: Left side page lists completed guns with summary of daily labor line items (along with many personal events/observations). Right side page lists daily labor operations.

The completed gun summary usually lists along with the gun particulars, disposition (sometimes) and serial number (most times), the 12-digit hyphenated “gun number” & hyphenated “order number” (which always begins with two digits followed by three digits followed by a combination of letters and numbers of varying length - more on the terminology and structure of these two numbers later in this correspondence).

For 1922632 you will see labor logged on August 24, 27, 28, and 29, all keyed to “7702” (the last four numbers in the “gun number” 3052-862-7702). The “order number” is 06-498-WH90H. I’ve concluded that 06 is the state code for Connecticut, 498 is the number unique to the Connecticut dealer placing the order for this gun, and WH90H is the actual order number.

Nicholas (Nick) Kusmit, Sr., (May 31, 1918 – December 13, 2010); Born in New Haven on May 31, 1918; to William Kuzmycz and Anna Cymbalista Kuzmycz, he was one of 10 children. He graduated from Commercial High School and the Paier School of Art and was a master gun engraver for the former Winchester-Olin Corporation for 30 years. Throughout his career in master gun engraving, Nicholas engraved many different guns for many famous people throughout the world. His engraving crafts were documented in many books and many of his guns and sketches are on display in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody Firearms Museum. He married Judy Thompson Kusmit. Together they raised their children Michael, Nicholas Jr., Thomas, and Christopher. Author: Courtesy of the Record-Journal and New Hampshire Register

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